


"Subtle" Confessions

by herecomestroublr



Category: 3Below, Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: A Glorious End Part Two, Based on the end of season two, Episode: s02e13 A Glorious End: Part Two, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, bc i cant write a story without giving the reader powers, the reader also has elemental powers, the reader has two moms, two lesbian moms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 20:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20431619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herecomestroublr/pseuds/herecomestroublr
Summary: With General Morando finally defeated, you and the gang prepare to say goodbye to the Tarrons. They have no reason to stay on earth--youknewthey would leave--so why does it hurt so bad?





	"Subtle" Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE ELEMENTAL POWERS I WROTE THIS ENTIRE THING WHILE WEARING MY WATERBENDING SHIRT. 
> 
> anyway i binge-watched tales of arcadia for the 3rd time and i love krel. he is a handsome MoodTM and i want to make out with an akiridian. 
> 
> im honestly posting this without being beta read, bc i want to post something before i have to head to class
> 
> if you need anything explained, please tell me! thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Edit 8/30/2019: this has now been edited

You weren’t stupid, not in the least. You’d known this town was weird even before the Eternal Night, and before Eli had even suspected anything. Your family had been blessed(cursed?) to find the supernatural, and so from a young age, you were taught of the world you lived above--the things you couldn’t always see. And subsequently, this came with elemental abilities closely linked to both the Trolls and Merlin himself. 

So it was really no surprise when a spaceship had crash-landed in Arcadia Oaks, two houses down from your own in an area where new foundations were being laid. You had been up early that morning, waiting to catch Eli on his paper route to return the history book you borrowed when it had happened. You were kind of surprised you were the only one who noticed but to be fair, lots of weird things happened in town, and people tended to ignore them. 

You’d watched as the ship turned into a 1950’s era house, and when Eli approached with a newspaper in hand and no idea who was behind those doors. So yeah, you weren’t stupid.

Things did get considerably crazier when the Eternal Night _did_ happen, but your family had already set up a barrier around the house, and you were all considerably safe from the Gumm-Gumms. And, you know, the Alien bounty hunters going after Krel and Aja, but you didn’t tell your mothers about that. Nor did you tell them about how you found their downed ship in the woods and confronted them. Or how you showed them your elemental abilities, and subsequently became their friend. Both your Mom and Mama honestly thought you’d just been hanging out with Eli more; which wasn’t exactly a lie, but not the truth either.

Of course, you couldn’t be there for many of the adventures and battles, but you were there to help Krel with the Mothership. While you weren’t as technologically smart as he was, you could lift the larger metal pieces with your powers, and show him your favorite music as well. So you became a close friend of his and eventually developed a crush. Throughout the summer months helping him build, or find parts to repair mother, or just to hang out and relax, your crush grew to something bigger. 

You didn’t exactly realize how much you’d liked him until General Morando had been defeated, and you were watching him and Aja prepare to go home. Watching Aja and Steve, and then seeing Krel, sunset lighting up his already glowing Alien form as he stood away from the group, it felt like your soul was being _ripped_ from your chest. 

“[Name]?” You heard Toby ask. You glanced down at him, and a look of recognition passed through his eyes. He’d seen that look before. “_Wait_, do you--” 

“Yeah.” You cut him off before he could admit it out loud. 

“So that means that you purposely always chose his team? _And_ spent all that time with him?” He asked, whispering so he wasn’t overheard by Steve, who had just walked back to your small group after saying goodbye to Eli.

“Yes.” You managed, turning away from him and taking a shuddering breath to calm yourself. You met eyes with Krel, aaaaaand yep. Yeah, there come the tears. 

He watched you, before turning back to the horizon as his sister came up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You were right, Aja,” you could barely make out his words from where you stood, “We made a lot of friends on this mudball.”

Aja’s eyes widened in surprise. “Little brother…”

Krel glanced back at the four of you, and you felt Aaarrrgghh! lay a hand on Toby’s shoulder in comfort. “All my friends are here,” he turned back to his sister with a small chuckle and grasped her hands in his own, the other two on her shoulders. “This is my _home._”

Aja hesitated, her voice quiet, “I-I know.” she smiled as Krel changed back to his human disguise, and released his hands. 

Varvatos, having watched the exchange, walked up and put a hand on Krel’s shoulder as he faced the crowd of people there to send him and his sister off. “The humans and this planet are lucky to have you.”

It was Toby who reacted first, a shout of excitement escaping him as he yelled, “_Yes!_ DJ Kleb is staying in the house!” 

You grinned and laughed as Coach Lawrence yelled an “Oh, yeah!” while the rest of the crowd cheered and celebrated, including Ricky and Lucy, who threw their cookies and trail mix in the air after declaring they were also staying. 

Varvatos walked away to say goodbye to Nana, and you continued to watch as Krel went to grasp his sister’s hands again. 

“You'll be okay without me?” He asked, voice quiet with a hint of worry showing through. 

“Of course! Now we will both be home.” Aja said, smiling as the wormhole opened and she released the hand of her brother, each of them turning to face the glowing blue portal. 

The Foo-Foo fighters and the Akiridian forces began to enter the wormhole, and the siblings shared one last smile and hug before Krel reluctantly released his sister’s hands, walking up to the group of you. 

Tody cheered and held out his arms, and Steve and Stuart smiled while you resisted the urge to jump into Krel’s arms. _Not the time, you told yourself. _Not. The. Time.__

__

__

After everyone else had entered the wormhole and Aja had picked up Luug, she turned back one last time to smile sadly at Krel, You, Steve, Aaarrrgghh!, and Toby. Krel stepped forwards, and you followed him, holding his hand for support. He glanced gratefully at you as his eyes began to water, and you heard Steve sniffle loudly behind you as he talked to himself.

“Come’ on, Steve! Get it together!” He mumbled before you heard him let out a loud cry. 

You heard Aaarrrgghh! make a weird noise, and heard Toby sniffle. “Why do these things always end in tearful goodbyes?” He asked, mostly himself. 

Aja frowned sadly at her brother for a moment at his tearful face but smiled when she noticed his own tearful goodbye, before finally entering the wormhole. Krel’s grip on your hand tightened, and you squeezed back when the wormhole finally disappeared, along with the sun. All was silent for a moment before the crowd of people began cheering again, and Krel let out a laugh before releasing your hand. Toby rammed into Krel’s side, hugging him tightly while Aaarrrgghh! consoled Steve over the loss of his girlfriend’s company. 

Many people ended up coming towards Krel to celebrate him staying, and you eventually got pushed away towards the back of the crowd. You were okay with it. You could wait. You’d waited a whole summer after all. He needed some recognition of his own. After living in the shadow of his sister for his whole life, he deserved it. He was amazing! He was smart and kind; he was so creative, making his own music and upgrades to Akiridian tech; he was funny in his own pessimistic and negative way--you’d even watched his banter with Aja go on for at least ten whole minutes at one point. You had always expected him to one day have his own spotlight. 

What you were _not_ expecting, was Krel to come to find you himself, and sweep you up into his arms. You yelped as he spun you around but eventually laughed in glee along with him, hugging back tightly when he placed you back on the ground. You held his hands in your own, grinning widely at him. His brown eyes sparkled in the moonlight, and you noticed then that you were the only two left at the observatory. Your smile dropped in confusion, and you peaked around his shoulder, frowning. 

“[Name]?”

“Where did everyone go?” then, more confused, “How long was I not paying attention?!” You asked him, looking around almost frantically. Even Stuart was gone!

Krel chuckled at you. “They left a while ago, [Name]. Stuart was the last to leave, actually, and I noticed you standing here watching the sky alone.”

“Oh.” you blinked, and he smiled at you, the corners of his mouth quirked up in a way that made your heart beat faster. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, chuckling as he waved a hand in from of your face to get your attention again. “You keep spacing out. Ha! Space.” He ended with a laugh, drawing out the sound of the ‘C’ in ‘space.’

You repressed a flush. “I--yeah. I’m…” You looked at him, standing under the moonlight, smiling at you while holding in his laugh of amusement, and that’s where you realized it.

You looked at him, really studied his face, and saw the similarities between his human disguise and Akiridian form. You could just _see_ his beautiful eyes, and slightly glowing skin, and you not-so-elegantly blurted out, “I’m in love with you.”

Krel paused, and his face looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened considerably and he jumped away from you, limbs flailing and face as red as your own, if not more. “WHAT?” He screeched.

You recoiled and fiddled with your hands. “I think I do, at least?”

He pointed a shaking finger at you, “Y-you…. you love me? ME?!”

You nodded. “Yeah. I...think. I’ve uh… never felt this way before? About anyone.” You paused and glanced back at Krel. He seemed to have calmed down a bit but was still looking at you with wide eyes and pink cheeks. “Of course you don't have to accept my feelings,” you rambled, beginning to pace to somehow expend the nervous energy you had, “I don’t know why I told you now, or how it happened--okay that’s a lie, I DO, but I don’t want to embarrass myself even further--”

“[Name],”

“--but I told you! I like you a lot, for tons of reasons--”

“[Name].”

“--and when it seemed as though you were leaving forever it felt like my _soul_ was being _ripped_ from my _chest_ and I just--”

“_[Name]!_” You stopped pacing and flailing your arms, panting as you locked eyes with Krel. He looked at you, expression almost unreadable, but his eyes glinted with something akin to hope. “_Please_, tell me the truth. Do you or do you not... l-love me?” he asked, voice confident at first before it trailed off into a more nervous tone.

“I...yeah. I do.”

“_All of me?_” His voice was small; so small compared the confidence it showed whenever he was working on any technology or making music, or doing his awful dance moves. His horrible, _horrible_ dance moves. 

You let him see your small, nervous smile. “I fell in love with the real you before I fell in love with your disguise.”

Krel let his human form drop, and you shielded your eyes from the brief flash of light before you found he was right in front of you, holding your hands in two of his own. “You really, really love me?”

You found yourself looking up into his eyes, neck almost straining. “Haven’t we already established that I do?” you attempted to joke, letting out a small laugh that was cut off by two hands cradling your face gently. 

Krel looked down at you, eyes soft and smiling at you, before whispering, “Can I kiss you then?” 

You nodded dumbly, not trusting your voice, and released one of the hands holding yours to place it over the one on your cheek. His free hand gently encircled your waist, and slowly he leaned closer.

He stopped an inch from your lips, and even though he didn’t need to breathe, you felt his breath ghost over your lips, before he finally closed the gap.

Before you could even kiss him back, he pulled away, and sucked in air, glancing at you. He blinked, and you starred back at him, and then your hands were on his face and his were in your hair, and you jumped up, wrapping your legs around his alien form while two of his arms held you in place as you sloppily kissed him back.

Eventually, you pulled back for air, panting, and Krel starred at your flushed face. “Aja is going to make _so_ much fun of me.” He suddenly groaned, head dropping to rest on your shoulder and his nose tickling your neck. 

You let out a small gasp and hoped he didn’t feel your heart pounding as hard as it was. “Wh…” You took in a deep breath, holding onto his shoulders. “Why would she make fun of you?”

Krel turned to look at you from your shoulder, one of his eyes looking up at you while his cheek continued to rest on your shoulder. “Because I told her kissing was disgusting whenever she'd kiss the Palchuk.” 

You giggled at him, and he nuzzled your neck, thinking you were laughing at him. “To be fair, anyone kissing Steve is disgusting.” 

“What about kissing me?” He mumbled, lifting his head from your shoulder and looking into your eyes again. 

Your face heated up again, and you leaned in closer, lowering your voice. “I need more data to decide that.” 

Krel’s breath hitched, and suddenly he was kissing you again; feverishly pressing his lips to your own over and over again. You clutched tightly to his shoulders, and a blue light flashed behind your closed eyes. Softer lips met your own again, and you buried your fingers in Krel’s hair. 

He pulled away briefly, “This is so much better than kissing you in my Akiridian body,” before attacking your lips again with his own and pressing you up against a lamp post. 

If you came home an hour after curfew with swollen lips, messy hair, and a few hickies, your mothers said nothing, only telling you that you were on kitchen duty for the week after breaking your curfew. 

EXTENDED ENDING:

After you had cleaned the kitchen and taken out the trash, and as you got in bed for the night, your phone rang. Your heart skipped a beat when you saw it was Krel, and picked up. 

“Krel? It’s almost one am, why are you still awake?”

“I almost forgot to tell you!” He sounded excited, and somehow not at all tired.

“What?” You asked, nose scrunching up in confusion at his cheerful tone for such a late hour. 

“I love you, too, [Name]. Sorry, it’s so late, but I got too caught up in kissing you to think of telling you that I loved you back. So here I am, telling you now. I love you.” he paused, and you heard him chuckle, “I think.”

You rolled your eyes at his joke. “Hardy-har-har, very funny, Krel.” He laughed loudly as you stupid-laughed at his dumb joke. “Anyway, I’m going to bed, now. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight! I love you very much!” He sounded way too cheerful and honest, but you loved it. 

You loved _him_. “I love you, too. Sweet dreams, Krel.”

“Sweet dreams, [Name].”


End file.
